Everything has now been recorded, so the next step is to lift the pins! The decorative pins were once attached to an organic material, possibly leather, this has now gone, replaced by soil and once the soil has been removed there will be nothing holding the pins together. So the challenge is to lift and conserve the pins in such a way to preserve the original fish scale pattern and any dimensions of the group, which may help identify this mystery object in the future.

A bit of a challenge, so I decided to lift only small sections at a time, which does mean breaking up the largest surviving section unfortunately, but I should be able to reconstruct this later.

In the first image you can see that some of the pins are facing up and some facing down, indicating that the material the pins were once attached to was folded, this has perished leaving the pins in this position. So now it’s not just a mystery object it’s also a layered mystery object! Oh joy!

On the next image, outlined in white, is the first section to be tackled; I thought I’d start with the smallest and simplest first! The upper surface of the pins is faced up with Japanese tissue and adhesive. Once dry I excavate round and under the section then lift and turn it over.

Not as straight forward as I thought as something new appears, not just pins, but a disc headed stud. The x-ray also reveals the remains of a chain, plus a line of dome headed studs

On cleaning, the chain can clearly be seen attached to the stud and would have once been suspended from it, possibly linking up to another stud elsewhere on the armour. There are also enough dome headed studs running in a line to suggest they were part of a deliberate pattern. The remains of a tinned surface and therefore white metal finish survive on the upper surface of the stud and at the end of the pin there is a washer or rove identical to that on the plaque featured on the previous blog. So there is a good chance that they were once part of the same object, but again it’s too early to be sure.

The disc and pins are now cleaned and preserved, in the last photo they are laid out as they were in the ground. The dome headed pins were in direct contact with the disc suggesting they were on the same layer as the stud, which was facing downwards in the soil and attached to something folded under the layer with fish scale pins, which were facing up. Hope that makes sense!

Now to tackle the next section and I have a feeling that this may be full of surprises as well.

Crocws:

Gwyliwch eich crocws yn ofalus iawn dros yr wythnosau nesaf. Gall blodeuo ar unrhyw adeg nawr, yn enwedig os yw eich ysgol yn y De neu ger yr arfordir. Gweler yr adroddiadau isod o ysgolion sydd wedi gweld arwyddion bod eu blodau ar y ffordd.

Ers 6 Ionawr fy Nghrocws wedi tyfu 1cm yn dalach. Mae'r dail bach a blagur wedi gwthio drwy'r pridd, felly rwy'n rhagweld y byddaf yn cael rhywfaint o flodau'r wythnos nesaf, neu'r un ar ôl. Gweler fy llun a'i gymharu ag eich pen eich hun.

Cennin Pedr:

Mae fy Nghennin Pedr yn 6 cm dalach, ond rwy'n credu y gallent eu cymryd 3-5 wythnos arall i flodeuo.

Mae'r cennin Pedr wnes I blannu yn hydref 2010 eisoes wedi tyfu eu blagur, felly dylai fod dim ond wythnos neu ddwy nawr cyn iddynt flodeuo. Edrychwch ar y lluniau i wybod beth i edrych am - pan fydd rhai chi yn dechrau ymddangos.

Atebion i'ch sylwadau:

Westwood CP School - Bulbs are starting to push through - no flowers yet - not too far away. Prof.P: Great news - I can't wait to see the pics!

Ysgol Bro Cinmeirch - Wythnos gwlyb iawn yma! Athro Ardd: Gobeithio bod y bwrw wedi gorffen nawr!

Stanford in the Vale School - Dear Professor plant. What a week! Bitter cold at the start of the week and then considerably warmer towards the end of the week! The children have been hoping for snow :-) Kind regards, Gardening Club. Prof.P: Yes the weather has been very changeable, snow would be lovely but it could harm the flowers!

Woodplumpton Primary School - We are excited that some of our bulbs have started to grow. Now we are looking closely every day and worrying a bit about ones that haven't appeared! Prof.P: Great that some bulbs are coming through, don't worry about the others they should come in their own good time!

Christchurch CP School - Some of the bulbs started to grow. Green shoots have started to come though! Excellent news! Prof.P: Watch them very carefully now.

Laugharne VCP School - We were very excited when we returned to school after the Christmas break to discover that 8 of our daffodils and one of our crocuses have started to grow! We couldn't believe it very early! Prof.P: So exciting! Keep watching to catch those flowering dates.

Sunday 4 December 2011

A bright, clear, sunny morning gave us our first good look at Macquarie Island, its straight steep eastern side plunging into the sea. On the shore we could see a beach packed with King penguins.

We had hoped to take the zodiacs out to cruise amongst the swimming Kings but a southerly wind was too strong and the swell too big for safety. But the Kings came to us instead. They are curious birds, and hundreds of them swam all around the ship.

Soon it was time to leave and we set off along the eastern side of Macquarie and out into the Southern Ocean. Once well out of sight of land, we were accompanied by several pairs of light-mantled sooty albatross which soared alongside our ship.

Below, skimming the waves, flashes of blue were Antarctic prions, while farther out, the huge white wingspan of a wandering albatross swept back and forth low above the water.

Monday 5 December 2011

It's going to take us two full days at sea to our next landfall, at Hobart in Tasmania, where my Antarctic journey will end. So all day today we've been rolling back and forth in the swell of the Tasman Sea and we've another day of it to go.

This is the time to look back on where we've been and what we've seen. A visit to Antarctica is always special, but this visit to the Ross Sea has been truly extraordinary. It's a difficult place to get to - we had to break our way through 900 miles of pack ice to reach 77o 50° South - and the landscape is like no other. It's one of those places where you find it hard to believe that you are really there.

It's been an amazing and moving experience to visit the century-old huts of the Scott and Shackleton expeditions, and one can only be in awe of their achievements, not just in their exploration of new lands but in the scientific work they did here, often in the severest conditions.

Having been to their expedition bases and to some of the sites they visited, I'm looking forward to re-reading the accounts of their expeditions, and especially that of Scott's last expedition, the centenary of which will be marked next year with a number of events in the UK.

I'm sure that much of what I've seen and experienced on this trip deep below the Antarctic Circle will enhance our forthcoming exhibition,

, and the activities we have planned around it. But for now, it's back to the rolling sea.

Efallai, i chi yn cofio ein lluniau rhyfedd o rosod a llygad y dydd yn blodeuo ym mis Rhagfyr? Wel, mae botanegwr, Dr Tim Rich, sy'n gweithio ar gyfer Amgueddfa Cymru wedi ymchwilio ymhellach i mewn i'r digwyddiadau anarferol.

Ar ddiwrnod y flwyddyn newydd fe gyfrif faint o wahanol fathau o blanhigion oedd yn blodeuo yn y gaeaf. Canfu fod y tywydd cynnes wedi caniatáu 63 anhygoel blodau gwyllt i flodeuo, sy'n llawer mwy na'r cyfartaledd arferol o 20-30 rhywogaeth. Gweler y newyddion adroddiadau isod sy'n egluro canfyddiadau ei ymchwiliad.

Efallai y gallech chi gyfrif y nifer o blanhigion gwyllt sydd yn blodeuo o gwmpas eich ysgol? Danfonwch un rhyw luniau i mewn. Yn y cyfamser, yr wyf wedi cael llawer o adroddiadau o ysgolion yn dweud wrthyf fod eu cennin Pedr a chrocws yn dechrau tyfu!

Cysylltiadau:

BBC Breakfast bore heddiw a BBC News yn fyw drwy'r dydd

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16503250

Gwrandwch ar Tim Rich ar raglen Roy Noble BBC Radio Wales am 3pm

Gwrandwch eto ar Tim Rich ar raglen Today ar BBC Radio 4 bore heddiw http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9675000/9675422.stm

Western Mail http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2012/01/08/unseasonably-warm-weather-sees-doubling-of-wild-flowers-in-cardiff-91466-30081765/

BBC Wales Online http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16465133

www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bylbiau

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